This Genius Built a Solar-Powered Volkswagen Bus Alexander Haro - The Inertia
go to original May 27, 2017

Brett Belan and his wife Kira have built a full electric solar powered volkswagen bus and converted it into a camper (Dylan Magaster)

Back in the day, gas was cheap and manufacturers didn’t exactly take fuel economy into the equation. Now, not so much. Brett Belan, the guy in the video above, came up with a handy solution: throw a few solar panels on the roof and use the sun’s energy for fuel.

It’s a ’73 VW bus, and it took him nearly two years to complete the conversion. Which, as anyone knows who’s tried to convert pretty much anything, can be a huge pain in the ass. Finding parts that fit something is often next to impossible. That’s the nature of converting something: making something into something it wasn’t originally supposed to be. “One of the challenges in doing a vehicle like this, is that there just isn’t a lot of components available,” Belan says in the video. “So we have to get kind of creative.”

I’ll let Belan explain how he did it, but here are the basics. His van runs off four 300-watt panels that he installed on the roof. The motor - and how he did this conversion is so far beyond me - and the transmission are both electric. It’s even got power-steering. Right now, it’s got 12 lead acid batteries, which are what you’ll find in most vehicles, but he’s got plans to replace them with lithium-ion phosphate batteries, which hold a charge better and last longer. And if the sun’s not shining, Belan’s rigged it so that he can plug into the grid and charge the VW that way.

Read the rest at The Inertia

Related: This Car Makes 2,713-Mile Trip Using Just One Gallon of Gas (Wall Street Pit)

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